Farm and land sales hit £10m

A Shropshire auctioneers is experiencing unprecedented demand for farms and land in Shropshire and bordering counties after seeing record sales of more than £10 million during March.

Despite the residential housing market slowing, with falling home prices, experts at county auctioneers Halls say they have never known such a buoyant market for rural land.

Halls chairman Peter Willcock said: "We have never known demand for agricultural land to be as strong as it is now. The surge in land prices is due to a number of factors.

"Farmers are buying land to expand due to a rise in commodity prices, city institutions are looking for investment opportunities, foreign buyers, particularly from Ireland, Denmark and Holland, are looking to buy land here and there are investors who are nervous about the stability of the financial markets and are looking for a safe haven for their money.

"There are also non-farming people who just want to own a small parcel of land, ideally about 20 to 30 acres.

"It has been a record month for Halls not only because of the value of the sales but also because of the speed with which they have been completed, possibly due to buyers and vendors trying to beat the Budget tax changes."

Mr Willcock added: "We have been through a difficult period where we had static land and commodity prices for a number of years, when agriculture contracted," he explained.

"Now this appears to have bottomed out and there are much better prospects for farming, with rising commodity and land prices.

Farms sold by Halls at auction during March included Onston Farm, a 318-acre mixed arable farm at Tetchill, Ellesmere, for £2.63 million, Hine Heath Farm, a 143-acre dairy farm at Stanton, near Shrewsbury, for £1.36 million and Cae Howell, a 181-acre dairy farm at Edgerley, Kinnerley, near Oswestry, for £1.046 million.

Land sold at auction included 55.35 acres at Lostford Stables at Lostford, Tern Hill for £316,000. The equestrian centre and about 10 acres were sold privately before the auction.

Farms sold subject to contract included the 167-acre Lower Treverward Farm, near Clun, which had a guide price of up to £800,000 and the 34-acre Oak Tree Farm, Woolstaston, near Church Stretton, which was on offer for £475,000.

By Amy Bould